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Definition of abominable in US English:

abominable

adjective

‘Members of the SWC jury said, while commenting on one case, that infanticide is an abominable crime and those who commit it cannot be exonerated, whatever the extenuating circumstances.’

‘This was a horrifying and abominable thing to do.’

‘From beginning to end, we are prey to the movie's diabolical killer, who presents us with a variety of abominable ways to slay and mutilate his victims.’

‘For years now I have been against capital punishment, arguing that killing someone either illegally or legally was the most abominable and most repugnant of crimes.’

‘Since emancipation, countless people have written about the cruelties of slavery but does anyone actually know how this abominable procedure started?’

‘And there are certain crimes still that are so heinous, so wretched, and so abominable that, yes, they do cry out for vengeance, and they do cry out for the death penalty.’

‘Of course, in reality-that is, in the universe beyond the boundaries of our conceptual vocabularies-homosexuality is no more abominable than lobsters or flying squirrels.’

‘If the point of the infamous anti-gay group that inflicted itself on New Mexico the other day was to gain media attention with outlandish prejudice, vile slogans and abominable signs - it succeeded.’

‘So even right here in the city you can find the most abominable poverty living almost cheek by jowl with these extraordinary lavish wasteful expenditures.’

‘Some of them are obviously indulging in terrorism, and there can be absolutely no doubt that to take hostages or beheading innocent captives is an abominable crime against humanity.’

‘IT is an abominable, insidious, and wholly unnecessary piece of legislation that ought never to have been conceived, far less passed by both Houses of Parliament and put into the statute books of this country.’

‘As he read the novel, its nihilism and careless insensitivity to Nazi anti-Semitism were shocking, even abominable.’

‘Even in the rooting out of something as abominable as pedophilia, the play shows, other moral truths can be lost.’

‘Lalla, in his opening remarks, told Wellington the prosecution had to be ‘the most vile and most abominable abuse of the prosecutorial process in the country.’’

‘And that, fundamentally is what was so abominable about apartheid.’

‘The couple nodded in agreement with her, and I became aware that I had somehow stumbled across a house of covert dissidents who I'd always been told were the most abominable and despicable of all people.’

‘Has that country gone back to the Stone Age to allow such abominable behaviour?’

‘The effect of this abominable behaviour by the killers is that the locals have abandoned activities like agriculture and other economic ventures for fear of being butchered.’

‘Here's someone who fought for one of the most abominable causes of all time, yet has acted with rationality, courage, and honour.’

‘By mid afternoon the whole world was converging on America as the horrifying and abominable events unfolded.’

‘Karen Kohlhaas's direction plays wholeheartedly into the leaden preciosity of the text and manages to make an already dreadful play even more abominable.’

‘Who could have constructed this abominable website?’

‘I've been a passionate advocate for us to end this quite abominable system we have in Australia of forcing people to vote and making people guilty of an offence if they choose not to vote.’

‘Inside, the noise level really wasn't any worse than at the Bronze, though the music selection was abominable.’

‘‘What happened after the game was simply abominable,’ said a member of the supervisory council of Levski, Todor Batkov.’

‘The presence of grapes in a salad is abominable, but sauces made from fermented grape juice are essential.’

‘They walk a short distance and enjoy a normal school life without having to worry about the abominable weather, let alone the wind.’

‘The credit for the most abominable use or misuse of plastic carry bags goes to the political parties and their feeder organisations, for whom the flimsy bags are handy and cheap decorative material.’

‘Then I summarize the reasons for which it is an absolutely abominable film?’

‘And we may venture the guess that Gibbon was disliked perhaps for his liking for that abominable stuff called snuff instead of tea.’

‘I am not surprised by such abominable news items anymore.’

‘SUV's are the abominable symbol of all that is wrong in the world today.’

‘But that's all gone now and traffic is abominable.’

‘In addition to all this, I have intensified my studies of the Bulgarian language since after six years my local communications skills are abominable.’

‘Wilfred could barely stand to see Jane's sparkling eyes and timid laughter wasted on that wretched English hag and her abominable beverages.’

‘Apart from the abominable aspect of having dog excrement on the streets etc., there is also a serious public health issue to be addressed by the dog owners, the County Council and the Health Service Executive.’

‘The drainage system is abominable, and a slight drizzle causes water-logging.’

Origin

Middle English: via Old French from Latin abominabilis, from abominari (see abominate). The term was once widely believed to be from ab- ‘away from’ + Latin homine (from homo ‘human being’), thus ‘inhuman, beastly’, and frequently spelled abhominable until the 17th century.